


Muspah, Mahjarrat, and Machinations

by Zanik_of_the_Dorgeshuun



Series: The Wind and the Waves [2]
Category: Runescape
Genre: Fifth Age, Gen, Quest: The Tale of the Muspah, Swearing, Tea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 17:56:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12281574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zanik_of_the_Dorgeshuun/pseuds/Zanik_of_the_Dorgeshuun
Summary: A fourteen-year-old Fremennik named Doktin finds a monster in a cave, then subsequently falls into the grand schemes of millennia-old beings from the oldest planet in the universe.(While this is the first time she's ever done it, getting caught up in grand schemes will come to be something of a habit for her. Tough one to break, too.)Based on the events of The Tale of the Muspah, with dialogue and specific details heavily edited.





	Muspah, Mahjarrat, and Machinations

**Author's Note:**

> This likely isn't going to be the first chapter of the finished fic; I'll likely be writing stuff that comes before this. It's just the first chapter I've actually written.
> 
> (Writing things in order? What the hell is that?)

Ali was interrupted from his study by a hailstorm of knocks on the door. How curious -- who would be visiting him, here and now? He peeked out the window to check: a young northern-looking ragamuffin, sunburnt despite her tatty white robes and almost as tall as his human form, was bashing on his door as if her life depended on it.

Strange, but not suspicious. He would allow her entry; for all he knew, her life _did_ depend on it.

He rolled up and tied the scroll he'd been reading, then got up from his chair and opened the door: "Good afternoon. Who might you be?"

"Doktin of Neitiznot, and I am _bloody well hoping_ you're Ali the Wise?"

She'd come looking for him specifically? Peculiar. "That would be me, yes."

"Oh, fucking _finally!_ Now lemme in, I'm aching to get outta this heat! Hotter than a yakshit fire out here..." Without waiting for permission, the foul-mouthed Fremennik muscled past him into the house; though bewildered, Ali let her. If she were one of his bretheren, he'd sense it. No, Doktin seemed genuine enough.

There were limits, though: "Please don't touch any of the books in here. Some are ancient, and may crumble at a less-than-delicate touch." The teenaged bundle of muscles that had just barged into his house did not look like the type for gentleness. A second reason for his warning remained unspoken: he doubted she could read Infernal, or most of the languages that filled his books, but there remained a present risk of her reading something she shouldn't.

"Not interested in the books," she said. Thank goodness. "I'm here for one thing only, then I'm leaving this Guthix-foresaken desert."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"Weird spiky statue..." She waved her hands about, miming its features. "Pincers and a tail and no legs like a snail and all that. Little bird told me you seen it?"

Probably one of the natural historians he'd encountered on his own search for the statue. He doubted the knowledge would have made it to any of his brethren. Still, the fact that she was interested in the statue was curious, and likely signified some Freneskaen involvement in this somewhere. "Why are you interested, might I ask? It is a rather niche area of study."

"Cos I seen one." A hasty clarification: "Not one of the statues! One of the things on top. The weird monster things, I seen one in a block of ice."

Now _that_ changed things. "You saw a mythical creature in a block of ice?" 

"Yep. In a cave. Weird monster, in ice, in a cave." 

"I see."

His mind had been set alight. A muspah, in the flesh? It could not be: even if muspah did exist, how would one have reached Gielinor? No, this would have to be a mahjarrat. For whatever reason, one must have frozen itself in ice... in muspah form? And with this girl presumably having found them in the Fremennik Province, the proximity to the Ritual Site added another layer of intrigue...

Thoughts were less easy to process in human form. They ran through his human brain like an unfortunate explorer running through quicksand. There was one thing, though, that never failed to help him collect his thoughts and sort through them with greater ease.

"Doktin, was it? Would you care for a cup of tea?"

***

The girl was staring into the tea, almost as if she were trying to read her future in it.

"Take a sip," Ali said. "It's a simple brewed beverage. I find it rather calming."

She picked up the teacup with both hands, one holding the handle and the other cradling the rest of the cup; he could see her flinching from the heat. "No need to burn yourself. Simply holding the handle should suffice."

Cautious, focusing intently, she tried holding the cup level while only gripping the handle; Ali could see small drips of tea running down the sides, and regretted filling the cup to such a full extent.

The cup met her lips. She took a tiny sip--- "Fuck, how can you drink this? It's like gulping down a geyser!"

Ali, meanwhile, was drinking his tea with no problem, savouring the taste and appreciating the slight sedative effect on his human mind. "It becomes easier when done out of habit. You may pick up the habit one day, if you care to. I do recommend it; some of this world's finest conversations are had over steaming cups of tea."

"I'll stick to beer," she said, shakily lowering the cup back into its saucer.

He mirrored the action, replacing his half-emptied teacup. "Now then, Doktin. You've come to me with a fantastical tale. You discovered a mythical creature in a block of ice. How, may I ask? Where?"

"I said, didn't I? Found it in a cave."

It was clear that he'd need to be more specific to get any useful information out of this girl. "And where, precisely, was this cave?"

"Bit near Rellekka. Kid needed help with his Trials, so I thought I'd give him a hand. Passed my Trials two years ago, see? Well into adulthood by now, but folks round here keep calling me 'little girl'!"

Ali noted this, resolving to treat the girl as an adult no matter how childish she might act. "And was this cave east of Rellekka? North-east? Or perhaps to the south?"

Doktin stared into the air for a little while, then stated: "East. And a bit to the north."

Well, that concluded the easy questions. Just as he'd suspected, this 'muspah' was located near the Ritual Site; this had to be by design rather than chance.

Now, with the beginnings of a rapport built, he could continue to probe -- and perhaps ask favours. "This ice: did it respond to normal fire? Surely, you could have melted it and freed the creature from its prison; I'm sure a warrior such as yourself could have tackled it with ease."

She glowed with pride upon receiving the compliment, then: "Nah, we tried. It was weird. Ice around it melted fine -- we did it with burning rafts! But I lit fires all round the ice in the middle, and... nothing."

Ali took another sip of his tea, wondering how to spin this situation for the girl to understand. Would he play on the Fremennik fear and hatred of magic, portray the trapped mahjarrat as a fearsome sorcerer, and have her kill them at their weakest point? That would be an easy path to take, but it would only be useful if he would gain advantage by killing the entrapped mahjarrat; whoever it was may well not be an enemy.

He thought over the mahjarrat still alive, and narrowed them down to three that might attempt to game the Ritual in this way. None of them had been present at the previous Ritual, but neither had any passed from the world; presuming they intended to continue living, it would make sense that they would be attempting to undergo the Ritual through less risky means. 

One was decidedly an enemy: Bilrach, one of the traitors, whose sly and scheming nature made him a prime candidate. He could certainly picture Bilrach concealing himself away in some dark cave, attempting to obtain the Ritual's power through less conventional methods. Yet Ali had recently begun to obtain intelligence suggesting activities to the east of the old Forinthry -- activities inconsistent with being frozen in a block of ice. That made him unlikely.

The other two were more feasible. Kharshai had always seemed to be a reluctant participant in Rituals, as far back as Freneskae. It had not gone unnoticed, and with Ali being a skeptic of the need for rituals himself, he had often considered reaching out to Kharshai himself -- before his disappearance. With Kharshai also lacking in allies, he was ripe for persuasion; even the most independent of mahjarrat could be terrified into pragmatic alliances in the years preceding a Ritual. Not to mention, with the number of Zarosians dwindling, his own need for allies was never sharper.

The other possible option was Jhallan, a Zarosian loyalist and as such an ally no matter what. He certainly struck Ali as a solitary type, though far from independent; there had been multiple Rituals at which his only defence had been the protection of his Zarosian kin. He had clearly seen it as an embarassment each time, resenting having to fall back on others; seeking out an alternative on his own was certainly within his character.

(He briefly considered Akthanakos, but dismissed the possibility, on the grounds that if he were to unwittingly shapeshift into any form, it would undoubtedly be a camel.)

The options were weighed. Saving this trapped mahjarrat would most likely be the best option; in almost all possible cases, he would be gaining an ally. But he would not risk getting involved in this personally, which begged the question: how could he persuade Doktin to carry this out? Could he even orchestrate events in such a way that the trapped mahjarrat would not incinerate the girl on sight?

His thoughts were interrupted by Doktin banging her teaspoon against the cup. "Hey, Ali! You drowning yourself in tea there?" 

"Hm? Ah." Ali placed the cup back on its saucer (his favourite, tailor-made by a visiting Menaphite craftsman). "I was merely thinking... might I tempt you with an adventure?"

Her face lit up, and Ali knew he'd hit his mark.

"I believe that the monster you have discovered may not be a monster at all."

Doktin leant forward, urging him to continue; Ali weighed up his phrasing carefully in his mind before continuing. "You know, of course, of the evil of using runes for magic?" She gave a hasty nod. "But do you know of natural-born mages, 

This wasn't quite landing so well; Doktin was looking on him with suspicion. "Like those damn loonie mages?"

"Lunar mages? No, not at all: they are simply humans who developed the ability to use magic without runes. I speak of races whose abilities have included runeless magic from birth. As Guthix intended," he added.

Doktin straightened her back. "And this monster is one of these?"

"Excellent, yes. Very quick on the uptake." Ali made sure the compliment had sunk in before correcting her. "Specifically, it's one of those who has changed its form into that of a monster -- unconsciously so, I suspect. The only decent thing to do is to free it from its predicament." 

She appeared disturbed, but decidedly engaged. "How we going to do that?"

"Wait here. I have something for you." 

Four sapphires and an Enchant Sapphire spell would suffice in diverting the magic from the ice; he would have to craft a tablet for the spell, considering her complete lack of magical ability. Getting her to use magic would be difficult, but the runeless nature of the tablet would likely help in convincing her.

More difficult would be having her treat the trapped mahjarrat with respect, having witnessed the complete lack of it that she'd shown his house. Good thing he'd given Doktin one of his least favourite teacups: her attempt to gain his attention earlier by bashing it with a teaspoon had left it chipped and beginning to crack. He also found her _enthusiastic nature_ somewhat draining; he'd need a good, long smoke after this.

He'd instruct her to _be kind to the poor frozen fellow,_ and to keep track of events so that she could report all that had transpired.

Wahisietel dearly hoped she'd listen.


End file.
